BT raises minimum cost of payphone call to 40p

The cost of making a 20-minute call from a BT payphone will rise to a minimum of 40p from November.

Users currently pay 30p for 15 minutes. Increased mobile phone use has seen the money raised from payphones drop by 47% since 2000. Only 23,000 of BT's 63,500 payphones are profitable. The price hike is to help maintain the phones.

A BT spokesman said: "We have a social obligation to provide telephones even though they are loss-making. We have pledged to provide payphones, particularly in remote and rural communities where many people rely on them."